Damage Estimates Double as Transit Work Progresses

City officials nearly doubled their estimates of earthquake damage to local homes, businesses and public buildings as Caltrans engineers dynamited a ruined Golden State Freeway overpass and workers put finishing touches on hastily built Metrolink stations in Palmdale and Lancaster Sunday.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena thanked workers who erected a pair of Metrolink stations in just four days in anticipation of a crush of commuters headed south into Los Angeles this morning.

“I want to congratulate you for doing such a great job and doing it so quickly,” Pena told construction workers, who were still toiling late Sunday. “It’s incredible.”

In Santa Clarita, city officials raised their estimates of the damage to $222 million. But they added that residents seemed to be coping well as they settled into a routine of post-quake disruptions.

“I think things are going well,” said Ken Pulskamp, Santa Clarita’s assistant city manager. “We’ve kind of passed through a lot of the critical things. People have water. The utilities have been turned on. Now, at least people are getting settled into some kind of routine.”

In their latest assessment, city officials added $39 million worth of damage to various private buildings and about $50 million to the California Institute of the Arts, a private college. That brought the number of private buildings damaged in the city to nearly 1,100.

City spokeswoman Gail Foy estimated that more than half of the area’s nearly 3,000 mobile homes were knocked off their pads by last Monday’s temblor, cutting them off from utilities. Thirty teams of building inspectors are assessing the damage.

Sunday evening, firefighters evacuated about 10 homes in a Santa Clarita neighborhood after workers accidentally broke a high-pressure gas line. There were no injuries or fire in the incident.

Officials expect to begin reopening City Hall on Valencia Boulevard this morning. Crews worked through the weekend to repair its estimated $2 million worth of damage. But the city’s emergency center will remain in tents and trailers in the parking lot.

In Palmdale and Lancaster, crews have been working 18-hour days and more to construct the two temporary Metrolink stations. The cities have spent more than $300,000 on the platforms and hope that the federal government will reimburse them.

Metrolink ridership has surged since the quake, with Antelope Valley commuters last week having to catch the train at the Santa Clarita station. More than 6,000 people rode Metrolink from the station Friday morning, surging from a pre-quake average of 500.

Just after 5 p.m., Caltrans crews used about 400 pounds of explosives to demolish a damaged section of the northbound Golden State Freeway at Gavin Canyon where the freeway crosses over the Old Road, part of the work necessary to open a freeway bypass by the end of this week.

Caltrans engineer Jay Steele said the massive explosion dropped about 1,500 tons of concrete debris onto a 15-foot-high mound of dirt that had been trucked in to cushion the roadway and underground utilities. Workers hope to break up the debris and truck it away by late Tuesday.

The blast was intended to clear the damaged freeway overpass over the Old Road so that roadway can serve as a bypass for the damaged freeway between Calgrove Boulevard and the Weldon Canyon truck inspection station. The demolition and paving work are expected to cost about $3 million.

Also, relief officials reported that five shelters throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, where about 590 people stayed Saturday night, are getting adequate supplies of food and water, with donations and volunteers coming from around the country. That number was down by about 60 people from the night before.

Officials said most electricity had been restored to homes in the valley, but about 30% of residents still were without natural gas. Most areas also had water service, except for several thousand Valencia Water Co. customers. However, valley residents still were being advised to boil tap water before drinking it.

The city continued to operate a group of water distribution centers, 11 locations offering bottled water and nine with water tankers. The stock included at least 18 truckloads of Miller beer bottles filled with water that the brewing company donated to the relief effort.